This Year's Flu Bug Is So Deadly, It Killed a Super Fit 21-Year-Old Bodybuilder in Just 5 Days

Kyler Baughman was 21 years old and in fantastic shape. His mother told a Pennsylvania TV station he wanted to be a trainer. Photos from his Instagram show that was no pipe dream.

On December 22, 2017, Baughman's family could tell he felt like crap. His mom would later tell WPXI that he "looked rundown and had a bit of a snotty nose." In spite of his youth and being in incredible shape, Baughman just kept getting worse. By December 28 he was dead from "Organ failure due to septic shock caused by influenza," said his mother.

Hospitals in California have been forced to set up tents in their parking lots to handle the overflow of flu sufferers. On Wednesday the AP reported that medical facilities in Oregon have been "pushed to capacity."

The scientific designation for this season's dominant strain is H3N2, but it's been nicknamed the Aussie Flu, as it originally struck Australia hard in 2017.

It causes more deaths than the other influenza A virus, H1N1, as well as flu B viruses. It’s a quirky virus that seems, at every turn, to misbehave and make life miserable for the people who contract it, the scientists trying to keep an eye on it, and the drug companies struggling to produce an effective vaccine against it.

The virus, reports Scientific American, is persistent, mutates fast, and while it can really hit the elderly and children, it's aggressive enough to take out men or women in the prime of life.

CDC

While the nature of H3N2 seems to indicate it can still infect even those who have had the vaccine, the CDC still recommends getting the flu shot. Even if you get the flu, it's likely to be a weaker case than the full-on blast to the immune system experienced by those who haven't made it to the pharmacy or their GP to take care of business.

It's not Captain Trips from Stephen King's The Stand, and in spite of those "worst season in history" warnings, researchers don't seem extremely worried yet.